Sama District
The Sisters of Battle rely greatly on their faith ; it is their sustenance and their shield. When thy first came to the tainted world of Kaurava, Confessor Turgenum March was quick to see how much holy light - and fire - it would take to cleanse the four planets. He therefore brought the Living Saint Anais and placed her in their primary bastion in Sama, on Kaurava I. Following a secret and ancient pratice, the Living Saint was imbued with the ''Inviolable Aura - an aura of invincibility which would prevent any chance, he thought, of defeat.'' Guarded at the last by this ''Inviolable Aura, the Sisters of Battle marched upon with great surety. Who in truth would dare oppose them ? What adversary could faith and fire not sweep from before them ? In the face of Cahos and vile aliens, the Sisters of Battle merely redoubled their fervent prayers and penances, and fought on. They came to believe that glorious victory was the only outcome.'' The idea that any would dare attack their mighty bastion was unthinkable. The possibility that their bastion could fall, beyond belief. The Sama District is the stronghold of the Sisters of Battle in Soulstorm's single-player campaign. This province is composed of a number of small bases scattered around the map and a primary one, which is the Living Saint's base. BACKGROUND : The single metropolis in the barren northern lands of Sama. It became the Preceptory of the Sisters of Battle Order of the Sacred Rose when they arrived in the system. The Sisters chose this city for its symbolism : a proud testament to the Imperium rising out of a dusty wasteland. GAMEPLAY : This map has two unique aspects : Periodically a Crusade will gradually build up. A priest will walk through a number of bases, gathering up forces as he goes. Once he's gone through a set of them the rather sizeable army he will have built up by this point will attack you en-masse, so be ready for a heavy fight. The majority of the army will be infantry, so have a good set of anti-infantry units built up to handle one of these attacks. Note each destroyed foward base will reduce the size of the Crusade, and razing enough will prevent further massive attacks on your HQ. The primary SoB base has a very unique defense, which will force you to become very familiar with the Divide and Conquer tactic. The Living Saint relic unit residing there is fully invincible, and also grants this invincibility to all allied buildings and units within a certain range of her. This invincibility is powered by four statues surrounding the platform that the main base is on, which you have to destroy in order to nullify it. The problem is, the moment you attack one statue the Saint flies over to it and protects it with her invincibility aura. You will have to divide your forces to attack two statues at once - while she protects one, destroy the other. It gets more interesting once you've destroyed three and are aiming for the fourth one. You will need to attack the main base to distract the Saint from the fourth statue. When this is done, the Saint moves to the center of the main base and is joined by a large army (which she protects with invincibility) on an aggressive assault against your forces. You now have two options: attack this final army with a moderate force to keep it busy while a second one destroys the final statue (allowing you to finally attack and kill the Saint plus her surrounding army and finally the main base), or wait for the Saint plus army to move far enough away from the central base, distracting it with a decent sized force, and send whatever anti-ground Air units plus teleporting/jetpacking units you can to the main base. All you need to do to win is to destroy the central structure; if your forces can distract the Saint's army long enough for this, you may win the day. BONUS POWER : Forward Bases The bonus you receive from controlling the Sama District is the Forward Bases ability. When attacking a territory, if you click the arrow over from your Honor Guard list on the left you get to the Forward Base section where you can pay planetary requisition to have structures already in place for you when the map starts. Unlike the Deep Strike ability from the Space Marine stronghold, this CAN be used against enemy Strongholds (although you might not get your full base right at the start of the attack). The buildings will also remain as part of the garrison if you win. For most of the races, the buildings list is quite similar : - Up to 4 power generators, - 1 tech research building, - Two buildings related to building infantry units of different types, i.e. "barracks"-type buildings. - And up to 4 turrets (or 4 special buildings if your race don't have static defenses). These have roughly the same cost as they would if set as the garrison for a territory, and can definitely make it easier to attack a location. Tip : Given their slow start-up time, this is possibly the most important stronghold for a Necron player to capture. Category:Locations